“I JUST CAN’T BELIEVE he’s gone,” I tell Mia.
We shuffle forward in line. Halloween is coming up soon, so the theater in town is showing The Silence of the Lambs. I don’t really like horror, but Mia is obsessed with Jodie Foster, so the plan is to eat a bunch of popcorn and cover my eyes whenever anything particularly creepy happens. I’d rather watch the next Lord of the Rings movie, but I haven’t seen Cooper in a few days.
Mia glances at me. She’s wearing an enormous black scarf wrapped around her neck twice, giving the impression that her head is detached from her body. “I guess it was his time.”
“He was fine just yesterday!”
The girl ahead of us in line turns around and says, “I am so sorry for your loss.”
I glance at Mia, who says, “We should hold a funeral. Although I’m not sure how, it’s not like you can flush him down the toilet.”
The girl gets a confused look on her face and turns back around. I try to control my laughter. “We could have a ceremony over the garbage can down in the laundry room.”
“Or maybe we should nick a spade from the greenhouse and dig him a grave.”
“Here lies Igor,” I start. “A loyal servant.”
“Devoted to the pursuit of pleasure until the end,” Mia continues.
I bow my head gravely. “A true hero. He will be missed.”
“What the fuck,” the girl mutters with a glance back at us.
We just giggle. It really is sad that Igor kicked the bucket while I was trying to spin a really hot fantasy about a werewolf who kidnapped me and—I haven’t admitted this part to Mia—had eyes just like Cooper’s. I may have been working on my book before I abandoned it for my bed. I tried to revive him with fresh batteries and a recharge, but neither worked. Maybe his flight across my room was his swan song, and I didn’t even realize it.
I have my rabbit vibrator, the one last used when Cooper teased me out of my mind, but it’s not the same. You’d think that hooking up with someone on the regular would mean I wouldn’t care, but I’ve been hornier than ever. It’s like getting a taste of the real thing has just supercharged my fantasies; I had a wet dream the other day that involved another blue-eyed hottie spanking me with his belt instead of just using it as a restraint. Damn that dark mafia romance reading binge I went on over the summer.
“I just can’t believe he would abandon me in my time of need,” I say. “I need something to distract me from the fact I’m actually going to fail chemistry.”
We step up to the ticket booth, so Mia has to wait to answer until we’re on the concessions line. “Are you serious? I thought you passed your midterm.”
I nod glumly. “I went to office hours to talk about it and the professor all but said that she didn’t fail me so I have a chance to scrape by with an overall pass in the course, but I should have failed. Without the curve, she couldn’t even have fudged it enough to be a pass. There’s the next test, and the final, but still.”
“Shit, Pen, I’m sorry.”
I give a little shrug. “Maybe Dad will finally realize this is a terrible idea.”
Mia gives me a surprisingly serious look. “Or you could just tell him. Say you’re going to declare a different major and be done with it.”
“Doesn’t your family think you’re studying to be a teacher?”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” She scowls, but it turns into a smile a moment later. “Hey, it’s your hockey player.”
I turn around. Cooper and Sebastian and a third guy I vaguely recognize from the hockey team are walking to the concessions line, cutting through the crowd of college students and Moorbridge locals with ease. They blend into the line right behind us, and when someone protests, Cooper says, “Sorry, man, just joining my girl.”
I glare at him. You let a guy spank you and then watch his favorite movie after, and he acts like it means something. He shouldn’t be talking like that in public, anyway, you never know who my dad might know.
He winds his arm around my waist. Despite the windy, miserable weather outside, he’s just wearing a sweatshirt, his Yankees cap backward like usual. What is it with boys and acting like the weather doesn’t affect them?
“Didn’t peg you for a horror fan,” he says.
“I’m just here for Mia.” I should shrug away, but I can’t quite make myself. I glance at his friend. “You’re on the team too, right?”
“Yeah,” he says, nodding. He’s handsome, with a sharp jawline and a medium-brown complexion, his dark hair twisted into braids. “I’m Evan.”
“Oh, right, Evan Bell.” I smile. The way Dad talks about him, he has a nice skill set and impressive speed on the ice. “Nice to meet you.”
“Don’t worry,” Cooper says in a loud whisper. “He knows I’m your sexperience tour guide. Your spice coach, if you will.”
Mia bursts into laughter. “No fucking way.”
I try to stomp on Cooper’s sneakers, but he steps out of the way in time. “I regret teaching you that word. Is he always this insufferable?”
“Yes,” Sebastian and Evan say at the same time.
“Game days are the worst,” Evan adds.
Cooper sulks, looking to me for backup, but I just grin, as unrepentant as he is when he drags a really good orgasm out of me. It’s been harder than I thought, not letting feelings get tangled up in any of this. I’m not falling for Cooper—that’s not what I want right now—but we’re friends, and that means I like him. He’s a better guy than I thought, unexpectedly sweet and genuinely funny, and I have to admit that since we began this whole thing, my life has improved for the better. It’s fun to tease him with his friends, because I know he’s going to find a way to get revenge when we’re in the dark of the theater.
We order popcorn and sodas, and Cooper pays for the whole thing, which should annoy me but doesn’t, really—at least, not as much as it should. When we walk into the theater, Cooper—and therefore Sebastian and Evan—follows us, and of course I end up sitting next to him. I just heave a sigh and open the packet of gummy bears I added in once I realized he was determined to treat us.
“Can I have some?” he asks.
I shake a couple into his palm. “They’re my favorite.”
“Noted.”
“Igor died.”
I’m not sure why I tell him, exactly. When he discovered Igor—after snooping around my room while I went to go pee, mind you—he thought it was hilarious that we gave him a gender and named him and everything. But then he watched me use him in what had to be the hottest mutual-masturbation session to ever take place in Lamott Hall, and he gained a new appreciation for him.
“What happened?” he asks. He waggles his eyebrows. “Did you ride him too hard?”
“Don’t make me regret telling you.”
His face softens. “I’m sorry. That sucks. Did you get to finish, at least?”
“No,” I admit.
“Ah, no wonder you’re so grumpy.”
“I’m only grumpy because you’re acting way too familiar in public. What if someone sees us?”
The lights dim at that exact moment, of course, so Cooper says, “I think we’re in the clear,” and then I feel his hand on my thigh, and my breath stutters in my throat.
“Come to the city with me tomorrow,” he says. “I’ll buy you new toys. As many as you want.”
“I have class.”
“So do I. Play hooky with me. I’m meeting my brother for lunch; you can meet him and then we can go to my favorite sex toy shop.”
I wish I could see his face better, because I can’t tell if he seriously has a favorite sex toy shop or if he’s teasing. His hand slides to my waistband, his fingertips stroking my bare belly. He traces my birthmark, a part of me that always seems to fascinate him. The first time he did it, I tensed, and he asked if I didn’t want him to touch me there—and of course the consideration made me want him to do it again.
“I don’t know.”
“It’ll be fun.” He shifts closer; I can feel his breath against my skin. The trailers have started, so it’s loud in the theater, but I can still hear him when he whispers, directly in my ear, “Whatever you want, Red. And then we’ll try them out.”
